Helen Domleo

I’m a creative South African eco-silver jeweller with a background in anthropology and museum work. Most of my jewellery is inspired by nature, my pieces are crafted to form seedpod or leaves. They are either textured using leaf skeletons or patterned with stamps and shaped to reflect natural forms. My work is textural – having been inspired by the African bush and from my travels. I use hammers and fabrics to emboss patterns onto silver and use a technique called fold-forming. This involves repeated hammering to push the metal to its structural boundaries: this creates wonderful organic shapes.